How One Determined Volunteer Manager Expanded Her Program

Guest post by Elisa Kosarin. This post originally appeared on Twenty Hats.

Decision-makers will come around to your point of view IF you take the time to educate them

Here’s a proposal: how about we replace the designation of volunteer manager with one that more accurately represents what we do? For me, the clear standout replacement is this:

Educator.

Whenever I interview a leader of volunteers for a blog post, I am struck by how our success is tied to our ability to educate board members, executive directors, co-workers, the public, about our work.

And while we may resent having to provide that education (wouldn’t it be great if more of our stakeholders appreciated our role from the get-go?), it’s the only consistent path to reaching our goals.

Leah Thibodeaux shared an awesome example of education in action when she successfully advocated to hire a second volunteer coordinator for her food pantry, St. Joseph Food Program in Menasha, Wisconsin.

St. Joe’s serves over 1,000 families each week and provides nutrition assistance to other nonprofits as well. It accomplishes all this with a volunteer force of 350 and a part-time staff of nine. Even the Executive Director works part-time.

Leah Thibodeau made the case for hiring a second volunteer coordinator by equipping her board with all the data they needed to make an informed decision

For Leah, that meant she had approximately 34 hours a week to recruit, schedule, and supervise a volunteer corps that handled almost all of food pantry’s operations – picking up donations, sorting them, packing them, greeting clients, distributing items to clients, and qualifying clients for assistance.

That schedule worked fine for many years – until changing volunteer demographics led to a decline in available volunteers.

“We have a very loyal volunteer base that enjoys volunteering in traditional ways, with a weekly set schedule, but they’re getting older,” says Leah.

Our volunteers are no longer able to do the sort of heavy lifting that’s required. We need to bring in younger volunteers, but Boomers, GenXers, and Millennials are not committing to work the same kind of traditional schedule.”

“We needed to devise new volunteer roles and ways to accommodate the needs of the different volunteer generations,” Leah continued, “But I couldn’t take on that task and manage the day-day activities of the volunteers. I was tearing my hair out trying to get it all done. We had to hire more staff.”

Fortunately, Leah was quick to spot her opportunity to advocate. When the Board went through its bi-annual strategic planning session, she createda comprehensive reporton volunteerism that provided board members with the education they needed.

“Historically, St. Joe’s has prided itself on relying on a ‘free labor force’ to deliver on its mission. I needed to show the board that a strong volunteer program is not free – it requires an investment.”

Here’s how Leah educated her board:

She illustrated the current state of the volunteer program by documenting the number of hours that volunteers contributed to the organization and the dollar value of those hours.

She walked the board through the challenges posed by the generational demographics, explaining how current volunteer contributions are at risk of declining due to changing volunteer preferences.

She proposed a solution — hiring a second volunteer coordinator — and shared detailed job descriptions to illustrate each coordinator’s duties.

At every step, Leah made sure to document her arguments with charts, graphs, and statistics. “I did not want the board to take my word for it when I explained that we needed more staff. I knew I needed evidence to make my case.”

Leah simplified the board’s work as much as possible. She even highlighted the salient facts that they needed to consider.

As evidence, Leah included:

Articles about the different generations of volunteers and their various commitment levels

Data that showed the kind of volunteer activities most likely to retain Boomer, GenX, and Millennial volunteers

With documents provided, Leah went one step further and actually highlighted the salient points that required the board’s attention.

The result of all that careful preparation? The board approved Leah’s proposal to hire a second part-time volunteer coordinator. The new coordinator was hired, trained, and on the job within four weeks.

What strikes me most about Leah’s approach is that she made it easy for the board to understand her position. She did the legwork for them. The statistics, charts, graphs, job descriptions – even the underlined facts – all facilitated the board’s ability to absorb new information and make a different decision.

By educating her board members, Leah achieved something remarkable: the first full-time equivalent staff role at St. Joe’s. And that role is not for an executive or program position – it’s for volunteer management.

Want some more tips for persuading your board, boss, co-workers, or even your volunteers? My Six Principles of Buy-In will take your influencing skills one step further. Email me to receive a handout about the principles and a next steps worksheet – and I’ll add you to the Twenty Hats mailing list.

About The Author

Elisa Kosarin

Elisa Kosarin, CVA coaches, trains, and consults on volunteer management. She believes volunteers are a powerful force for change in our communities — if they are managed by volunteer engagement pros with the skills to cultivate this resource.